CANTON — Cherokee County saw a rise in the amount of foreclosures in the month of June, but some say the increase is likely not significant.

A total of 195 foreclosures were advertised in the Cherokee Tribune, the county’s legal organ, in June, which is an increase from the 183 in May, but still far from rivaling the numbers from this time last year.

June 2012 saw 387 foreclosures heading for the court house steps in Cherokee.

And Dennis Burnette, Cherokee Bank president and CEO, said it’s the change from June of last year that is the more important number to consider.

“I still see the trend over the next few months, moving downward,” Burnette said. “You really have to look at an overall trend, and still our overall trend over the last several months has been downward.”

Brent Ellis, a Realtor with ERA Sunrise Realty, also said the increase isn’t significant.

“In housing numbers, I would call that flat,” he said. “I wouldn’t really even acknowledge that as a rise.”

Ellis also said overall the numbers are down this year, and he expects them to keep going down.

“Generally, I would expect that number to continue to slowly taper off,” he said. “We might see a month-to-month rise of 10 here, 15 there.”

Ellis said there are a lot of factors at play pushing foreclosures down in 2013.

“Some people are starting to get back to jobs or feeling a little bit more confident in their position,” he said. “The banks also have worked through a lot of it, and they’re holding back on some (foreclosures).”

The lack of foreclosures in Cherokee County in 2013 has also affected the inventory of available homes in the county, Ellis said.

“Right now, everything’s going down, except price,” he said.

But Burnette said at some point, the numbers have to stop going down.

“We may have reached a plateau. I’m not sure where the floor is,” Burnette said. “When you consider that we have about 220,000 (residents in the county), there’s just going to be so many foreclosures. With that many people, you’re not going to have zero divorces, you’re not going to have zero people lose their jobs.”

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